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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Mango Rasayana/Payasa/aam ki kheer/ Aam ras is one of the yummy dish we prepare during the mango season. Rasayana is one of the famous traditional sweet dish, that is very famous in South Canara/Dakshina kannada/Malenadu in Karnataka/India.

Mango Rasayana is special for us to enjoy the mango season. Mango pulp is squeezed out, jaggery and coconut milk is added to it. Adding little bit cardamom (some time) adds to the taste. This Mango rasayana is served with South Canara Special- Neer Dosa/Bari Akki Dosa or Ottu Shavige or Normal dosas and idli (Kadabu). In some places Holige/Pooran Poli is the dish to enjoy with Mango Rasayana. It is always healthy to enjoy seasonal fruits and vegetables on time. It helps us to be fit and fine.Let us see some benefits of eating " Mango Fruits " in our diet.
Mango fruits are known as King of fruits. They are tasty and contain lots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant properties. Mangoes are very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. They are rich in dietary fiber and vitamin B6. They are good source of Vitamin A and Vitamin C. They are rich in minerals like potassium, magnesium and copper. Mangoes help to keep the blood pressure in control.
Mangoes help to control the cholesterol level in our body. They are good for gaining weight and good for digestion. Vitamin B6 are rich in mangoes and it helps and protect the brain health. Mangoes helps to boost the body immunity since they contain beta carotene.
I have used Alphansa mangoes which are brought from my sister Sujatha;s house. They are sweet and yummy.

Let us see the recipe Now :

Things needed :

Method :

1 Wash and wipe the mango with a clean towel.
2. Soften the mango fruit by squeezing the outer part.
3. Now make a hole and squeeze out the pulp completely to a big bowl. Keep the outer layer in a big bowl.
4. Grate coconut and grind it with little water. Let it turn smooth paste. Add little more water and grind.

5. Now sieve this ground coconut. Let all the coconut milk pour down inside the bowl.
6. Put squeezed coconut again to the mixture and grind it with 1/2 cup of water for 4 to 5 minutes.

7. Remove the coconut from mixi jar and sieve the ground coconut. Remove the milk from ground coconut by squeezing. Keep coconut milk aside.
8. Now put mango pulp, coconut milk and jaggey. ( I used organic jaggery which is given by Shobha Somayaji).

9. Put very little water to a bowl and dip mango outer layer and remove the remaining pulp. Add this mixture to the bowl.
10. Now mix every thing nicely. Add powdered cardamom. Mix all the ingredients nicely.

11. Mango Rasayana is ready to serve.

12. We had it with Neer Dosa .

Note :

You can grind mango pulp and then add it to the jaggery and coconut milk mixture.
Adding more jaggery is optional. I have used 3 to 4 tablespoon full of jaggery. Use a fresh coconut gratings to get the good coconut milk. Do not add much water while grinding. ( 1/2 cup will do at a time). Adding more /less jaggery is optional.Time : 30 MinutesServes : 3 to 4 .

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Tonde kai Majjige huli/Curd curry goes well with plain or any masala rice and rotis of different varieties, with dosas and rotti.

Tonde Kai/Ivy Gourd is also called as tindly or Thindora, and in Tamil they call as Kovekai . Ivy gourd in English. Normally its said that this perticular vegetable is good for diabetics and helps to regulates the blood sugar.

Tondekai Southekai Majjege huli is a simple and an easy dish.
No Garlic or No Onion is added in this curry.

Things Needed :

Tonde Kai: 2 cups.

Southe kai ( Cucumber ) : 1 Cup.

Green Chillies: 3 to 4.

Coconut : 1/2 cup.

Mustard Seeds : 1/4 Tea spoon.

Jeera: 1/4 Tea spoon.

Salt : to taste.
Turmeric : Pinch.

Curd .( Yogurt) : 1 Cup.

Curry Leaves : 6 to 8.

Coriander Leaves: 2 Table spoons.

Ingh : a pinch.

Ghee or Coconut Oil: 1 Tea spoon.

Method :

1. Wash and cut Mangalore southe kai/ Bannada southe and put it in a bowl of water.3.

2. Wash and cut tonde kai/ivy gourd and boil till they are soft. ( 8 to 10 minutes). Keep it aside.
3. Grate coconut and grind it with little water.
4. Keep a big pan on the fire . Add cooked vegetables. Add slit green chilly. Add turmeric.
5. Mix it well and let it boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Add ground coconut and mix it well.
6. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Put off the fire.
7. Add mustard seasoning and shift the curry to a serving dish. Add coriander leaves.

8. Add a bowl of curd and mix it well and serve with the main dish you have prepared.

Note:

The curry should be thick . Do not add much water while grinding or while cooking. Adding curd when the curry is cool is to avoid the curd to be curdled. ( curd becomes some what spoiled milk and won't look good and tasty). Adding curd at the end will keep the curry without turning savoury.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Mix besan, chilly Powder, jeera and salt. Prepare batter adding little water. Keep it aside. Cut bread slices in to small pieces and keep it aside.
Now keep a pan on the fire. Put oil and heat. Dip bread slices in already prepared besan dough and fry them on medium heat . At time 4 to 5 pieces can be fried. Fry on both side and remove from the oil. Repeat the same with the rest.

Sweet and hot chutney:
Wash and grind Pudina leaves, coriander leaves, green chilly, little tamarind, 1/4 spoon jeera and 4 to 5 dates together till paste with little water . Remove from the jar and add required salt to it. Keep it in a small bowl . Do not add more water.
Note : The chutney should be thick. Do not add any other spiece to it. While preparing bajji dough do not make the dough watery . The watery dough will take more oil while frying and the bajjis will be oily. See the consistency of dough is like idly dough.
Sweet and hot chutney can be prepared separately and can keep it in fridge for a week. Can add little jaggery or honey if you like sweet taste.
You can also add pomogrante to the carrot mixute if you like.
3 to 4 Serves.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

DoddiPatre or Sambara balli is a herb plant. The leaves of this plant has many medicinal values, like when you have cold or throat pain , you can just eat one or two leaves with little salt inside it. It purifies the blood too. This perticular dish is a side dish and usually served in the beginning of the lunch goes very well with rice.

Things Needed:

Sambara balli Leaves: 15 to 20

Butter Milk : 2 cups.

Salt : required.

Ghee : 1 Tea spoon.

Jeera ( Cumin seeds ) : 1/2 Tea spoon.

Pepper Seeds : 5 to 6.

Ingh( Asofetodia) : a pinch.

Red Chilly : 1

Coconut : 1 Table spoon

Method:

Wash and keep the leaves aside. Now keep a pan on the fire. Put ghee and heat a bit. Add jeera and pepper seeds, and red chilly and fry for 20 seconds. Add the sambara balli leaves and fry nicely till the colour change or till its little soft. Add ingh to it and remove the mixture from the pan. Leave it for cooling.

Now grind the fried mixture with fresh coconut and little butter milk nicely . Put the ground mixture in a small bowl. Add salt and remained butter milk or curd. Mix thoroughly and make it more liquidly. Serve this dish in the beginning of the lunch. You can also add little fried jeera and curry leaves just before serving .

Note : Fry the leaves on low flame till soft. You can also avoid coconut if you do not like it. But coconut will give a bind to the ingredients and taste better.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Rava or rave means samolina. Raagi is called finger millet in English. We can prepare this spicy dosa for break fast or we can have as snack in the evening. Not much of time consumed to prepare this dosa.

Method:
Mix rava , raagi and rice powder. Add rasam powder, chilly powder and salt to it. Add grated coconut.
Mix nicely and add required water and prepare dosa dough and keep it for 10 minutes.
Keep a dosa pan on the fire and heat. Sprinkle 1/2 tea spoon of oil and prepare dosa . Leave it for 1 minute and turn the dosa and cook other side of it. Prepare dosas with the rest of the dough. Serve this dosa with jaggery or honey or with desired chutney. Put little ghee on the top of dosa while serving.

Note : You can also grind coconut and rasam powder together and mix other ingredients and prepare dosa . Can use ghee instead of oil. Rasam powder can be prepared by roasting 2 table spoons of daniya ( coriander seeds), 1/4 spoon of Methi ( fenugric seeds), 1/2 a spoon of jeera ( cumin seeds) and 4 to 5 red chillies.( Use badagi chillies to get the colour and good taste.) Roast separately on low flame and powder it when it is cooled. Prepare dosas on medium heat to get the good result.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Cucumber or Southe kai sweet idlies are tasty and healthy food and can have them for break fast or as evening snack. It is easy to prepare and any age group people can have this idlies.

Things Needed :

Cucumber : 2 to 3 . (Medium size ).

Raw Rice : 2 cups.

Coconut : 1/2 cup.

Jaggery : 1/2 cup.

Salt : a pinch.

Water : Required.

Ghee : 1 Table spoon

Method : Wash and soak raw rice ( dosa rice) for 2 hours. . Grate fresh coconut and cucumber and keep it aside. Grind soaked rice with fresh coconut and little water like rava consistency and add jagary to it . Remove from the jar . Add salt and grated cucumber and mix it nicely.

Now apply ghee to idli plates and keep it ready . Put a spoon ful of the dough on the idlli plates keep it in the pressure cooker or idly cooker and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Sweet cucumber idlies are ready to serve. Serve with ghee on the top.

Note : Adding coconut will help the idly to be soft and it gives a nice aroma too. Can add cardamom to the dough. Do not grind rice till paste. Can use rava ( samolina ,medium size rava) instead of rice. Roast rava and then add it to the ground mixture and prepare idlies.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Figs and Lemon juice is very refreshing drink. Figs can be dried and kept in summer and use it whenever you need it.

Figs help us to be healthy in a way. People who are suffering from the himoglobin count in the blood cell , can have this drink regularly and keep themselves healthy. Pure figs concentrate is available in Malenaadu ( Sagar - Shivmogga side in Karnataka ). You can get dried figs also here.
I have used the dried figs. You get a concentrate of figs in Sagar/Shimogga/Karnataka /India. They do collect the figs after it is completely grown and prepare the concentrate in natural way.
Figs are collected and soaked with sugar or jaggery and kept it in the sun. Figs completely absorb sugar and it is then turned as liquid. No artificial chemical added. The concentrate then filled in the bottle and kept it for using it. I was lucky to get a bottle of juice.

Things Needed :

Method :

1. Wash and soak figs in normal water for 10 minutes.
2. Grind soaked figs with soaked water till paste.
3. Remove from the jar. Put it in a bowl. Now squeeze out the lemon juice and mix it.
4. Add honey or sugar and stir nicely. The Figs juice is ready to serve.

5. Put the Figs-Lemon Juice in to glass and add a piece of ice cube. ( I did not add ).

Note : Adding more/less figs is optional. Adding ice cube to the juice is optional. Adding a pinch of salt helps you to be on healthier side. ( It avoids getting cold). If you are using Figs Concentration then do not add any sugar or jaggery. Use of Sugar/Honey /Jaggery is optional.Time : 10 Minutes.Serves : 3 to 4

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Method :
Soak Alasande pods in water for 5 to 6 hours. Wash and remove the outer skin and the inner pulp of Sauthe kai and cut it in to pieces. Wash and cook Alasande pods in pressure cooker for 8 to 10 minutes. Or till it is soft. Cook sauthe kai separately . Now gring fresh coconut with red chillies and jeera till paste with little water. Remove from the jar and keep it aside.
Keep a big pan on the fire and heat. Put oil and heat. Put mustard seeds and urd daal. Let the mustard seeds spurt. Add curry leaves and ingh to it. Now add cooked Alasande, Sauthe kai and put little water and boil. Add salt and tamarind pulp to it. Add a pinch of turmeric and ground coconut mixture. Mix it nicely and boil for 4 to 5 minutes. Serve with hot rice or chapatis.

Note: The pods to be cooked till soft to get the correct taste. Can also add carrots. Can even add coriander seeds while grinding ( 1 tea spoon). But the taste differ. You can also add jaggery to the curry to get sweet taste.
serves 4 -5.

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sambrani is a vegetable similar to potato but small in size. This vegetable is called as Arvi in Hindi.. It is called as Sambrani ( not Lobana ) in Dakshina Kannada side. ( Udupi - Mangalore ). We can also make palya ( dry curry). Sambar, Majjige Huli and many more items with this vegetable and dishes are loved by all age group.
Sambrani - Capsicum cutlet is a snack and you can even have them for break fast .

Method :
1. Wash and boil Sambrani in a pressure cooker . ( 6 to 8 minutes ). Leave it for cooling.
2. Then remove the outer skin part and keep it aside.
3. Grate carrots, ginger and cut capsicum , coriander leaves, green chilies and keep it aside.
4. Roast Oats nicely and leave it for cooling.
5. Keep a pan and put 1 tea spoon of oil and heat.
4. Add jeera, cut green chilies and cut capsicum and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Leave it for cooling. Put bread slices to a small mixi jar and powder it and keep it aside.
6. Now take a big bowl and put cooked Sambrani and smash it nicely.

7. Add ginger coriander leaves and fried capsicum and grated carrots and red chilly powder.
8. Add salt and roasted Oats. Add powdered bread to the mixture.
9. Mix all the ingredients nicely in hand. Now the mixture is ready to prepare cutlets.

10.Keep a pan on the fire and heat. Sprinkle a spoon of oil on the pan.
11.Take a handful of mixture and give a shape of your wish and shallow fry them on both sides. 12.Cook on low flame to get the crispness.
13.Use the same method and prepare cutlet with the rest of the mixture.
14.Serve Hot Sambani Cutlet with coconut chutney or Ketchup.

Note :
Frying capsicum will help the cutlet to get a better taste. Must cook on low flame so the cutlet is fried nicely. You can use Oats with out roasting . But it gives a sticky feeling. You can add beans or peas. You can add more green chillies to get a spicy taste. You can also add garam masala powder instead of red chilly powder
Serve Hot cutlets to get the good taste. Remember these cutlets are heavy after eaten.
.10 to 12 cutlets can be made. ( small size).

HelloEvery one....My name is Nalini Somayaji. Teaching is my profession. Cooking is my passion. Reading, traveling, visiting new places, having fun with kids are some of the hobbies I can say. My recipes are Healthy, quick, easy and simple. Grown up being a traditional family member I love and respect Indian culture and traditions. Love classical dance and music.